Martial Arts News

The Professional Fighters League’s upcoming event in Florida has undergone a late change.Nkosi Ndebele replaces Gustavo Oliveira against Marcirley Alves on Aug. 22Gustavo Oliveira is out of his scheduled bantamweight matchup with Marcirley Alves at PFL Tampa, with Nkosi Ndebele stepping in as the replacement. The card is scheduled to air live on ESPN at 9 p.m. ET.

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Alves (15-5) will now face Ndebele (13-3) on Aug. 22 at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa. The promotion did not provide a reason for Oliveira's withdrawal in its announcement. Alves was originally slated to face Oliveira after winning the 2025 PFL bantamweight world tournament. He will now meet Ndebele on short notice.

PFL Tampa is headlined by Cris Cyborg's women's featherweight championship defense against Ketlen Vieira.

Cris Cyborg’s final MMA bout headlines PFL Tampa: Tune in on Saturday, Aug. 22 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.

𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟: New #PFLTampa Matchup…

Namo Fazil is at the center of several controversies after his failed bid at an Ultimate Fighting Championship contract.

Coming off a win on the inaugural Most Valuable Promotions MMA card, Fazil had a lot of hype going into his Dana White’s Contender Series outing against Kaik Brito. Fazil had also trash-talked quite a bit in the lead-up to the bout, in which Brito put him to sleep in the final round.

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Robert Valentin alleges Namo Fazil tried to choke him during a confrontation in 2023 Fazil has since claimed that his performance was affected by an assault during his weight cut. He was allegedly confronted by 15 Chechens in his hotel room while cutting weight. The alleged attack was seemingly triggered by Fazil’s comments against Chechnya ahead of his win over Chechen fighter Yakub Sulimanov last year.

UFC middleweight Robert Valentin has since accused Fazil of attacking him in Thailand in 2023. Valentin had allegedly pushed away one of Fazil’s …

Henry Cejudo is set to compete in his third combat sport after accruing several accolades in wrestling and mixed martial arts.

The former two-division Ultimate Fighting Championship champion is set to make his professional boxing debut against streamer Nurideen “Deen the Great” Shabazz on Sept. 26 in Miami, Misfits Boxing recently announced. The event will stream live on DAZN Boxing.

Henry Cejudo will face Deen the Great five weeks after his scheduled wrestling rematch with Merab Dvalishvili Cejudo's professional boxing debut comes just weeks after his latest scheduled wrestling appearance under the Real American Freestyle banner.

The 39-year-old is scheduled to face Merab Dvalishvili in a wrestling rematch at RAF 12 on Aug. 22 in Cleveland. If he comes out uninjured, “Triple C” will have only five weeks to lock in for his professional boxing debut.

The Olympic gold medalist retired from MMA for a second time after losing to Payton Talbott in December 2025. He su…

Kevin Vallejos claims he’s one win away from entering the featherweight title mix in the Ultimate Fighting Championship after the recent change to Noche UFC 4’s main event.

Jean Silva was originally scheduled to headline the fourth edition of Noche UFC against Yair Rodriguez on Sept. 12 at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. However, Jose Delgado will now replace Rodriguez, who pulled out for undisclosed reasons.

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Yair Rodriguez's withdrawal changes the stakes surrounding Jean Silva's next fight The matchup between Silva and Rodriguez was seemingly an unofficial featherweight title eliminator, with both top-ranked 145-pounders coming off wins in their last outings.

However, Delgado is still green in the UFC with a 4-0 Octagon record. Despite Silva’s ascent in the promotion, a win over Delgado doesn’t carry as much weight as beating the former interim champ. Vallejos recently hinted that he is expecting the next featherweight title shot with …

Jon Jones has fired back at Daniel Cormier after his longtime Ultimate Fighting Championship rival once again excluded him from the GOAT debate.

Cormier recently argued that Jones' history with performance-enhancing drugs prevents him from claiming the sport's top honor. Instead, “DC” pointed to former undefeated UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, citing the Russian's spotless record and lack of major controversies. Jones attributed this claim to “jealousy.”

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Daniel Cormier cites Jones' PED history while making the case for Khabib Nurmagomedov After Cormier argued that Jones doesn’t belong in the GOAT conversation and brought up his lone defeat, a disqualification loss to Matt Hamill in a fight he was dominating, “Bones” took to social media to respond to his former foe.

“I started in the UFC so early that I didn't even know what the rules were,” Jones wrote. “The night I fought Matt was the first night I had ever even heard the term '12-…

Josh Hokit believes Alex Pereira’s defeat dented his stardom.

Pereira was one of the biggest stars in the Ultimate Fighting Championship when he vacated his light heavyweight title and moved up to heavyweight. The Brazilian looked to become the first-ever three-division champ in UFC history when he challenged Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title at UFC Freedom 250 this past June.

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However, Gane knocked out Pereira in the second round and Hokit now wants to fight “Poatan” after the latter returns to winning ways.Josh Hokit says Alex Pereira needs to rebuild momentum before a potential matchup Pereira’s coach and mentor, Glover Teixeira, recently suggested that “Poatan” should fight Hokit next to regain momentum. However, Hokit believes Pereira’s stock has dropped considerably with the loss to Gane.

Hokit wants an incentive if he fights Pereira next. “The Incredible Hok” notes that UFC CEO Dana White had said that Pereira would be the greates…

Reinier de Ridder doesn’t want to have to go through Robert Whittaker again.

The Dutchman is scheduled to make his Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight debut against Roman Dolidze at UFC Sacramento on Aug. 22. Meanwhile, de Ridder’s former foe Whittaker also recently moved up to light heavyweight and the former One Championship two-weight titleholder doesn’t want to run it back with the former UFC champ anytime soon.

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Reinier de Ridder explains why his win over Robert Whittaker took so much out of him While de Ridder edged a narrow split decision win over Whittaker at middleweight last year, it wasn’t an easy outing for “The Dutch Knight.” He says he was surprised by Whittaker’s speed, especially with the jab-cross, and admits that the fight took a lot out of him, forcing him to dig deep to get the win.

“I hope that they don’t propose that [rematch] for now,” de Ridder said at UFC Sacramento media day. “[Whittaker] is still so f*cking q…

Sean Brady didn’t take his first professional loss lightly.

Brady was a highly touted, undefeated welterweight prospect with five wins in the Ultimate Fighting Championship going into his clash against Belal Muhammad at UFC 280 in 2022. Muhammad tagged Brady late in the second round and followed up with a barrage of shots, eventually forcing the referee to step in.

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Sean Brady details the emotional toll of his UFC 280 loss to Belal Muhammad Brady recently revealed that he was mentally broken after his loss to Muhammad. He admits that his identity was built around his undefeated record, with the thought of losing never crossing his mind. Brady hired a mental health coach as he was an absolute mess. He even claims that he used to randomly start crying while driving.

“I thought I was going to retire undefeated,” Brady told Daniel Cormier. “I really truly thought I was never going to lose and then obviously, I did lose. My whole identity was wrapped up…

Namo Fazil says he was jumped by a group inside his hotel room leading up to his loss at Dana White’s Contender Series.

Fazil suffered a brutal knockout loss against Kaik Brito in the main event of Week 2 of DWCS 2026 on Tuesday. Fazil claims his performance was affected due to an altercation during his weight cut.

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Namo Fazil details alleged confrontation during weight cut before Kaik Brito fight According to Fazil, he was already drained, with just a few pounds left to cut, when he heard a knock on his hotel door. As his coach opened the door, around 15 Chechens allegedly entered the room and confronted Fazil.

He claims one of them slapped him, trying to provoke him to fight. Fazil eventually reacted after he was slapped a second time. His coaches then intervened and tried to de-escalate the situation before the cops showed up.

“While cutting weight for my Dana White’s Contender Series fight, about 15 Chechens showed up at the hotel room wh…

The Professional Fighters League will return to Chicago in October.

Liz Carmouche and Jena Bishop will meet in a rematch for the inaugural PFL women’s flyweight title in the main event at PFL Chicago on Oct. 16 at Wintrust Arena. This is the first new title to be introduced since the PFL’s merger with Most Valuable Promotions.

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PFL CEO previews promotion’s upcoming trip to Chicago Carmouche (26-8) stopped Bishop (11-3) in the third round of their first bout last August. Bishop has rebounded from that loss with first-round stoppage wins over Borena Tsertsvadze and Ariane Lipski da Silva. Meanwhile, Carmouche has since scored a submission win over Viviane Araujo this past June, to extend her winning streak to four.

Cris Cyborg’s final MMA bout headlines PFL Tampa: Tune in on Saturday, Aug. 22 at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN.

“Chicago has become an important market for PFL, and we're excited to return with another championship event for our fans,” PFL CE…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s fourth edition of Noche UFC reportedly has a new main event.

Jean Silva was originally scheduled to face Yair Rodriguez in the main event at Noche UFC 4 on Sept. 12 at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. However, per a new report by Guilherme Cruz, Rodriguez has pulled out for unknown reasons and will now be replaced by Jose Delgado.

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Jose Delgado replaces Yair Rodriguez in Jean Silva’s Noche UFC 4 main event Delgado (12-2) is 4-0 in the UFC since making his Octagon debut in 2024. Coming off decision wins over Andre Fili and Austin Bashi, he will face his biggest step up in competition by far against Silva (17-3).

Meanwhile, Silva is coming off a decision win over Arnold Allen, rebounding from his lone UFC loss to Diego Lopes. “Lord” had finished all five of his previous UFC opponents before losing to Lopes. The Brazilian reacted to the change of opponent on X.

“Hunter took care of everything, w…

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters and champs have weighed in on whether Islam Makhachev has earned GOAT status.

The Russian defended his welterweight title for the first time at UFC 330, picking up his fifth defense overall in the UFC after a dominant run at lightweight. His latest win, a decision victory over Ian Garry, served as a record-breaker, with Makhachev now the leader for most consecutive wins in promotional history.

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Chris Weidman, Dustin Poirier and Jorge Masvidal have offered their takes on where he stands among the sport's greatest fighters.Chris Weidman questions Islam Makhachev's title defenses as Dustin Poirier backs Jon Jones for UFC GOAT In the latest episode of “Deep Waters,” Weidman, Poirier and Masvidal shared their thoughts on whether Makhachev has earned the right to be called the greatest fighter in UFC history. “I am not saying that yet,” Weidman said, responding to the question about Makhachev being the GOAT now…